Boulder's Twenty Ninth Street mall getting H&M

By Alicia Wallace, Camera Business Writer

Posted:
03/05/2013 03:36:21 PM MST

Updated:
03/05/2013 10:51:57 PM MST

Carla Resendisz shops the H&M store at FlatIron Crossing in Broomfield during its grand opening in August. The fast-growing company is planning to open a store at the Twenty Ninth Street mall in Boulder.
(MARK LEFFINGWELL)

H&M plans to open a store in Boulder.

The popular "fast-fashion" clothing company known for its lower-priced apparel and accessories filed a minor modification application this week with the city of Boulder to open a store at the Twenty Ninth Street mall.

Sweden-based Hennes & Mauritz AB plans to combine four spaces at 1755 29th St. -- spaces formerly occupied by the recently relocated MontBell and Lucy and the shuttered Gymboree and The Territory Ahead -- into an 18,000-square-foot space, said Jessica Vaughn, a planner for the city of Boulder.

H&M also has job openings listed on its website for a store manager and a department manager for a location at the Twenty Ninth Street mall.

An H&M spokeswoman could not immediately be reached for comment, and Twenty Ninth Street officials declined to comment.

The Boulder store would be H&M's fourth in Colorado and represents another high-profile retailer landed by Twenty Ninth Street within the past year. Specialty grocer Trader Joe's last year picked the retail center as the locale for one of its first Colorado stores.

H&M operates stores at the 16th Street Mall in Denver and at FlatIron Crossing in Broomfield. A third location is under construction at The Streets at Southglenn center in Centennial.

H&M's entrance into Colorado came with plenty of fanfare. A line 900-people strong wrapped around the Denver Pavilions store in advance of the late 2011 opening.

H&M, which operates more than 2,800 stores in 48 markets, opened 304 stores between Dec. 1, 2011, and Nov. 30, 2012, according to the firm's annual report.

The company plans to accelerate that growth rate by opening 325 stores during the comparable period this year.

"This means that we will effectively be opening a new store every day," CEO Karl-Johan Persson said in a statement accompanying the annual report. "In 2013, the highest rate of expansion will again be in China and the U.S."

In the United States, H&M has cherry-picked markets that fit its demographic -- a younger customer base -- and picked areas where it feels it could have a "slam dunk," said Jon Schallert, a retail analyst who heads the Longmont-based The Schallert Group Inc.

When H&M entered Colorado in 2011, there was concern that the trendy retailer would pull away hordes of customers from other clothing stores, including local boutiques, Schallert said.

That wasn't the case.

"It seemed to be a non-event," he said. "It really isn't a dramatic new format; it really isn't a revolutionary retail concept. ... It's not a store that is going to be a game-changer.

"It's not an Apple Store."

Sean Maher, who heads an organization that promotes and supports downtown Boulder businesses, said he doesn't believe that H&M's arrival would negatively affect the local clothiers on the Pearl Street Mall.

"I think that the demographic and the target market (H&M is) going after are not necessarily the same ones that our locally owned retailers are going after," said Maher, executive director of Downtown Boulder Inc.

Jessica Helson, owner of Chelsea, a women's designer clothing boutique at 2088 Broadway in Boulder, said she sees H&M as a potential benefit to her business.

"In general, I'm always excited about a new retailer coming to town who will draw more shoppers to Boulder and add to the tax base," she said.